This has been a pretty hectic week. It feels like the week was going in fast forward and I was struggling to keep up. Debbie worked four days this week, and I really enjoyed spending time with Elliana, but it was really hard to get much done on the business, or find a regular routine.
On the plus side, the meals have been a big success. Monday I made hummus and Shish Tawook, and Tuesday and Thursday I made Indian. Food was much healthier, tastier, and less expensive this week.
Tuesday I dropped off my proposals which I burned to an interactive CD at the company I interviewed for. I didn't hear back from them all week, so probably they're still not interested. I'm still glad I did it though, as I learned quite a bit in making it.
Friday was kind of a bummer. Another company I'd sent my resume to about a month and a half ago sent me an e-mail that they didn't have any openings. That's not too surprising as I sent my resume to them unsolicited, but they were an acoustical based company that would have been fun to work for.
Today I'm basically regrouping and trying to get better prepared for next week. Debbie works a lot which means I won't have as much time as I'd like to work on the business, but this weekend I'm working on taxes, preparing marketing letters for my business to send out, and am thinking about cooking all the meals for next week tonight or tomorrow.
Guess that's about it for now, I'll keep up with the blog better this week.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Bring the Mojo Back
From Sunday 2/21
Today as I'm at a coffee shop working on a proposal I'm going to pitch to the company again, I've once again reclaimed a place of real enjoyment and happiness. Listening to some laid back REM and Seal, reading through acoustic literature, and putting together a sweet power point presentation, I'm really enjoying myself. I really enjoy researching acoustics, and trying to find solutions to problems. Regardless if my efforts are successful, I know I'm doing what I really love to do.
Today as I'm at a coffee shop working on a proposal I'm going to pitch to the company again, I've once again reclaimed a place of real enjoyment and happiness. Listening to some laid back REM and Seal, reading through acoustic literature, and putting together a sweet power point presentation, I'm really enjoying myself. I really enjoy researching acoustics, and trying to find solutions to problems. Regardless if my efforts are successful, I know I'm doing what I really love to do.
Sorry for the delay in posting, here's a recap of the last two weeks...
From Saturday, 2/20
Tuesday evening I recieved a call that the company I'd interviewed for was not interested in hiring me. Actually, I missed the call and recieved the message over voicemail. I was more dissapointed than I thought I would be. Looking back, I must have been expecting to land the job even though the odds seemed long. Tuesday night and most of Wednesday I didn't want to talk about it with Debbie, or really think about it. I wasn't at the precipise of dispair or anything, but thought it would take a day or two to absorb and move on.
Wednesday morning I was really congested and sick, and pretty bummed. Elliana has been really constipated and somewhat conjested all week which meant she'd been waking up a lot at night, and not taking many naps during the day. Coupled with the fact that Debbie was working most days this week, it really made it difficult to get anything constructive done, or shift gears to working on the business again.
I had a major sinus headache, felt generally pretty sick adn tired, I felt out of sinc, and my future and direction seemed unclear. Not that a direction in life would have helped at that particular moment as I was too tired to take any real action. Debbie told me I looked like a pretty sad sight that morning in the shower huched over resting my head on the shower wall while the water just ran down.
By Thursday I felt much better. The sinus headache was gone, and I was no longer bumbed, but more irritated I got turned down. I knew I could have done an excellent job, and HR had given the old "we've moved on with a more qualified candidate" line when I knew full well they had been looking to fill that position for 2 years and they had 2 open spots.
My entrepreneurial spirit started to rise up, and I decided to call my potential boss up and pose the idea of working on a contract basis. My thinking was that he seemed to like me, and if it was HR pushing back then this would be a way I could get a foot in the door without having to get HR involved as much. So I called Epic and pitched the idea via voicemail.
Friday I was feeling pretty chipper again and able to start working on the business again.
This morning was rather peaceful. Elliana got up early, and Debbie and I went back to bed at 9am. For some reason I couldn't sleep. My mind was swiriling with ways I could pitch myself to the company. Finally, I jumped out of bed, and went to the library to work on a more concrete proposal to the company. After all, I still had nothing to lose.
Today has been highly productive, and it's seemed like I got a ton done, and ideas have been flying off the page.
From Saturday, 2/20
Tuesday evening I recieved a call that the company I'd interviewed for was not interested in hiring me. Actually, I missed the call and recieved the message over voicemail. I was more dissapointed than I thought I would be. Looking back, I must have been expecting to land the job even though the odds seemed long. Tuesday night and most of Wednesday I didn't want to talk about it with Debbie, or really think about it. I wasn't at the precipise of dispair or anything, but thought it would take a day or two to absorb and move on.
Wednesday morning I was really congested and sick, and pretty bummed. Elliana has been really constipated and somewhat conjested all week which meant she'd been waking up a lot at night, and not taking many naps during the day. Coupled with the fact that Debbie was working most days this week, it really made it difficult to get anything constructive done, or shift gears to working on the business again.
I had a major sinus headache, felt generally pretty sick adn tired, I felt out of sinc, and my future and direction seemed unclear. Not that a direction in life would have helped at that particular moment as I was too tired to take any real action. Debbie told me I looked like a pretty sad sight that morning in the shower huched over resting my head on the shower wall while the water just ran down.
By Thursday I felt much better. The sinus headache was gone, and I was no longer bumbed, but more irritated I got turned down. I knew I could have done an excellent job, and HR had given the old "we've moved on with a more qualified candidate" line when I knew full well they had been looking to fill that position for 2 years and they had 2 open spots.
My entrepreneurial spirit started to rise up, and I decided to call my potential boss up and pose the idea of working on a contract basis. My thinking was that he seemed to like me, and if it was HR pushing back then this would be a way I could get a foot in the door without having to get HR involved as much. So I called Epic and pitched the idea via voicemail.
Friday I was feeling pretty chipper again and able to start working on the business again.
This morning was rather peaceful. Elliana got up early, and Debbie and I went back to bed at 9am. For some reason I couldn't sleep. My mind was swiriling with ways I could pitch myself to the company. Finally, I jumped out of bed, and went to the library to work on a more concrete proposal to the company. After all, I still had nothing to lose.
Today has been highly productive, and it's seemed like I got a ton done, and ideas have been flying off the page.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Two week retrospective
I would have thought that I would have been able to focus strictly on my business these past two weeks, and regardless if I get offered a job or not it wouldn't really bother me, but in actuality between Debbie working , and the prior week when I was studying acoustics, I kind of got out of my grove, and it's been hard for me to focus back on the business.
Each subsequent day past the interview I've been focusing more on business development, yet in the back of my mind I've been expecting to hear back from the interview a little more, with the net result of a constant distraction in the back of my mind.
It has been nice to see God moving in the whole situation though. For the last few years, God has seemed to be in the habit of working not so apparently and plainly when it has come to major life changes, or perhaps it's just that I haven't been listening too, I'm not sure. I'm not saying this has been a bad thing, it's actually stretched me and helped me grow.
For instance, when Debbie and I were trying to get pregnant last year with Elliana, I never got a peaceful feeling like we were going to get pregnant, but more of a long silence. Previously in life it's seemed that God's given me a heads up on how things were going to work out, which has eased the situation. But coming face to face with the prospect we might never have children actually made me stronger, and grow deeper in my faith, so I appreciate God not giving the ending away to me.
But back to the current job situation, a few weeks ago after church when I was really wondering what direction God was going to take my career, a friend of ours came up and talked to me for 20 minutes about a similar situation he was in. He changed career paths from an engineering career to one completely not using his degree, and he shared how God had really blessed his life as a result. This was encouraging to hear not just as an engineer, but also because I could see God was using him to tell me not to worry.
And last night, our neighbor who I've only spoken with once before came over and struck up a conversation about my job. He works at the place I interviewed at and he said he thought he saw me interviewing there a few weeks back, and thought it would be great if we could carpool together.
So that was encouraging too. Of course, if I don't get the job, I guess I'll just have to blame God for leading me on and tormenting me with false hope, but for the time being, I'm going to give Him credit for more out of the blue encouragement. ;-)
So I'll just have to see what the next few days hold. One final observation is that I don't seem to be as confident that if I don't get the interview that it's just because there's a better plan out there for me. I'll probably wonder what I could have done different. Maybe if I would have answered a question differently, or had a higher GPA, or worked harder during my career.
I'm not exactly sure why my mindset has shifted since I left Harman and was totally confident things were going to work out completely fine. Maybe it's a subtle philosophical shift I'm having. Like the guy who smokes 6 packs of cigarettes a day and wonders why God gave him lung cancer. That one clearly seems to fall on the shoulder of the chain smoker, but how about the guy who decides to drive when he's dead tired, falls asleep at the wheel, and gets in a bad accident? Then let's say he wrecks his car, he has a nagging health problem, but looking back on his life he sees it as a turning point where things actually got better. Was it God's intent that he have that accident, or did the guy make a stupid mistake and God had to go to a plan B and bless him anyway? I used to lean towards it was God's will, but now I think I'd probably call it plan B.
So I guess in a way I feel like the guy driving his car late and night all sleepy. For quite a few years in my career I kind of drifted along, and then about 4 years ago I decided to find my purpose. If I get the job I'm interviewing for, it will seem like a vindication that I'm on the right track. If I don't get it, for the time being, it will feel like perhaps my years of slacking caught up with me, not that God just had a better plan in my life. Hmm...
Each subsequent day past the interview I've been focusing more on business development, yet in the back of my mind I've been expecting to hear back from the interview a little more, with the net result of a constant distraction in the back of my mind.
It has been nice to see God moving in the whole situation though. For the last few years, God has seemed to be in the habit of working not so apparently and plainly when it has come to major life changes, or perhaps it's just that I haven't been listening too, I'm not sure. I'm not saying this has been a bad thing, it's actually stretched me and helped me grow.
For instance, when Debbie and I were trying to get pregnant last year with Elliana, I never got a peaceful feeling like we were going to get pregnant, but more of a long silence. Previously in life it's seemed that God's given me a heads up on how things were going to work out, which has eased the situation. But coming face to face with the prospect we might never have children actually made me stronger, and grow deeper in my faith, so I appreciate God not giving the ending away to me.
But back to the current job situation, a few weeks ago after church when I was really wondering what direction God was going to take my career, a friend of ours came up and talked to me for 20 minutes about a similar situation he was in. He changed career paths from an engineering career to one completely not using his degree, and he shared how God had really blessed his life as a result. This was encouraging to hear not just as an engineer, but also because I could see God was using him to tell me not to worry.
And last night, our neighbor who I've only spoken with once before came over and struck up a conversation about my job. He works at the place I interviewed at and he said he thought he saw me interviewing there a few weeks back, and thought it would be great if we could carpool together.
So that was encouraging too. Of course, if I don't get the job, I guess I'll just have to blame God for leading me on and tormenting me with false hope, but for the time being, I'm going to give Him credit for more out of the blue encouragement. ;-)
So I'll just have to see what the next few days hold. One final observation is that I don't seem to be as confident that if I don't get the interview that it's just because there's a better plan out there for me. I'll probably wonder what I could have done different. Maybe if I would have answered a question differently, or had a higher GPA, or worked harder during my career.
I'm not exactly sure why my mindset has shifted since I left Harman and was totally confident things were going to work out completely fine. Maybe it's a subtle philosophical shift I'm having. Like the guy who smokes 6 packs of cigarettes a day and wonders why God gave him lung cancer. That one clearly seems to fall on the shoulder of the chain smoker, but how about the guy who decides to drive when he's dead tired, falls asleep at the wheel, and gets in a bad accident? Then let's say he wrecks his car, he has a nagging health problem, but looking back on his life he sees it as a turning point where things actually got better. Was it God's intent that he have that accident, or did the guy make a stupid mistake and God had to go to a plan B and bless him anyway? I used to lean towards it was God's will, but now I think I'd probably call it plan B.
So I guess in a way I feel like the guy driving his car late and night all sleepy. For quite a few years in my career I kind of drifted along, and then about 4 years ago I decided to find my purpose. If I get the job I'm interviewing for, it will seem like a vindication that I'm on the right track. If I don't get it, for the time being, it will feel like perhaps my years of slacking caught up with me, not that God just had a better plan in my life. Hmm...
Today is the greatest day I've evern known
It's a little after 3pm on Tuesday, and I've got some time on my hands so I thought it was high time to add another blog entry. Today I'm at home while Debbié's at work. She's been working about 2-3 days a week some days part time, and some days full time. That's kind of been throwing off my schedule I had going of getting up around 6-6:30, working out for an hour, and then working at a coffee shop / library from about 8-5.
Today in particular, Elliana has been really constipated so I haven't been able to get a thing done as I've pretty much either been trying to feed her or hold her so she doesn't cry. She didn't go down for a nap until just now.
So here's an update of the last two weeks. Two weeks ago I had an interview with a local company that would be doing work related to acoustics and multimedia. At first, about a month and a half ago when I first heard about the job, it didn't sound like it would be a particularly good fit, and I was more focused on developing my own business.
However, after the interview I've started to think I would actually enjoy working there. I've been somewhat torn because on one hand I think I'd like the freedom of continuing to develop my own business, and this potential job would stop the direct development of my career in that direction. On the other hand, I also don't think it's prudent to pass on an opportunity for acoustical work I'd learn from when the business is still in the development stage.
That being said, it's now two weeks since my interview. I was told I'd hear from them within two weeks, so that would be today. I've heard from others at this company that they can take awhile to get back to you, so I'm not reading too much into the delay so far.
Bottom line - even though these last few weeks have been bumpy and my future is not certain, I'm glad I've been able to still enjoy the time in a lot of ways. I'm thankful for the extra time I've been able to spend with Elliana, Debbie who's been willing and able to work at the vet clinic, and for the time I've had to pursuit my dream of my own acoustical business as I look for a job.
Today in particular, Elliana has been really constipated so I haven't been able to get a thing done as I've pretty much either been trying to feed her or hold her so she doesn't cry. She didn't go down for a nap until just now.
So here's an update of the last two weeks. Two weeks ago I had an interview with a local company that would be doing work related to acoustics and multimedia. At first, about a month and a half ago when I first heard about the job, it didn't sound like it would be a particularly good fit, and I was more focused on developing my own business.
However, after the interview I've started to think I would actually enjoy working there. I've been somewhat torn because on one hand I think I'd like the freedom of continuing to develop my own business, and this potential job would stop the direct development of my career in that direction. On the other hand, I also don't think it's prudent to pass on an opportunity for acoustical work I'd learn from when the business is still in the development stage.
That being said, it's now two weeks since my interview. I was told I'd hear from them within two weeks, so that would be today. I've heard from others at this company that they can take awhile to get back to you, so I'm not reading too much into the delay so far.
Bottom line - even though these last few weeks have been bumpy and my future is not certain, I'm glad I've been able to still enjoy the time in a lot of ways. I'm thankful for the extra time I've been able to spend with Elliana, Debbie who's been willing and able to work at the vet clinic, and for the time I've had to pursuit my dream of my own acoustical business as I look for a job.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
My Brain Hurts
Today I had an interview with a local company, and my brain still hurts. For the last week I'd been studying a bunch of technical stuff which I knew they probably wouldn't ask, and they didn't. This afternoon they had a number of tests I had to take. It was part SAT type questions, part logic and brain teasers, and part programming. I think I did well on some parts, but I know there were a few questions I blew.
The interview portion went pretty well I think, and liked the people that I interviewed with. The job was clarified more. I think I could learn a lot and have a lot of latitude in what I did. One of the people there got a PO for $60,000 in recording equipment approved just to record all the seminars and speakers.
It seems like there could potentially be well over 100 multimedia rooms that need to be automated/managed with over half yet to be built / finished, and they're looking for someone to oversee the acoustical details of the install.
Plus there's a real need to implement an overall management strategy for all the AV rooms themselves. They use some pretty powerful hardware which has the potential to integrate everything. I.e. you could get an e-mail if a projector was malfunctioning, and check out the status of all the rooms on a web page.
I also found out that over 20 people have interviewed in the past for the position and they turned them all down! So I'm not holding my breath.
Still, it's been good to study acoustics and audio these past few days as it will no doubt help in the coming weeks whatever my career path is. They said they'd get back to me within two weeks. Tomorrow it'll be back to working on my business...
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